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Section Ii Chapter 12 Emergence of Feminine SECTION II CHAPTER 12 EMERGENCE OF FEMININE CONSCIOUSNESS CONTENTS INTRODUCTION STATE OF THE CHRISTIAN THEOSPHERE UNSHACKLING FEMININE CONSCIOUSNESS MARY AT FATIMA AND WEAPONS OF WORLD WAR I ASSUMPTION OF MARY AND NUCLEAR WEAPONS MARY AS INTERCESSOR MARY AS QUEEN OF PEACE MARIAN CONSCIOUSNESS THE REVITALIZATION OF THE GODDESS CONCORDIA CLOSING COMMENTS 2 INTRODUCTION. The following is a psycho-mythic-spiritual examination of the emergence of Feminine Consciousness in Western Civilization. The key focus is on the Roman Church’s proclamations on Mary, the biblical Mother of Jesus. During the Crimean War (1853-56) the Catholic Church issued a Papal Bull (1854) proclaiming the Immaculate Conception of Mary. In pronouncing this encyclical, the Church made it an article of faith that Mary was born without sin. Symbolically, it may be said that the Immaculate Conception freed the feminine from the mythic curse placed on Eve (and the feminine) when she was exiled from Paradise for eating of a forbidden fruit. In brief, feminine consciousness was freed from the shackles of “unworthiness.” Today weapons of mass destruction abound and there is serious concern that their use will cause humanity, as a whole, great harm. As wars increase their destructiveness, there is a growing awareness for the need for feminine consciousness on earth as in the Theosphere. This curse laid on the feminine in Genesis solidified patriarchal order. Patriarchal rule on earth fell in step with the patriarchal system that existed in Heaven. There is an alchemical dictum "As Above, So Below." The Below refers to humanity’s earthly dwelling. The Above represents the place of the apprehended but unknowable God; it refers to the heavens, to the Theosphere. The Below operates in relations to the Above. Alchemists believed that humans were vessels wherein the spirit dwelled and that the objective of human existence was to re-establish the original harmony that once existed between the divine and humanity. The alchemist, Paracelsus, wrote that "everything that exists or takes place in the universe, exists or may take place in the constitution of man." But what if the Theosphere itself is dysfunctional or lacks harmony? What price does the Earth pay for such disharmony? At first glance, the obvious answer to the preceding question is that the Below pays a heavy price. A dysfunctional order on earth raises an anxiety that, in the nuclear age, is too great to bear, namely, that humanity will destroy itself. But if disharmony abounds the Above it can be assumed that there exists a counter force which is trying to surmount what is dysfunctional. It is this discord in the Theosphere that calls for feminine nurturing and grace in order that the Above reflex a more mature and cohesive whole to the Below. While there is no reason to believe that a war in Crimea has any relationship with the Papal proclamation of Mary’s Immaculate Concept which was declared during the Crimean War, the fact that it was the first modern war that introduced weapon technology that greatly increased the killing zone suggests that perhaps some linkage exists. The same may be said that there is no reason to believe that development of nuclear weapons has any relationship with the Papal proclamation of Mary’s Assumption into heaven other that it was declared at the time that the Soviets developed its own atomic weaponry and the United States developed thermonuclear weapons. Is there a link between the deathliness of weapon technology and what can be called Marian Consciousness? The answer may be found in the State of the Theosphere which may be called dysfunction and caused by a patriarchal regime that has, for all practical purposes, exiled the feminine from the heavens. Correction of such disharmony may require the presence of feminine consciousness not just in the Below but also in the Above. A trace of this consciousness dates back to an early Church encyclical that declared Mary’s Theotokos, that is, Mary’s Motherhood of God. Besides the encyclicals on Mary various Popes have linked Marian Consciousness with peace. In 1883 Pope Leo XIII named Mary "guardian of our peace." In 1954 Pope Pius XII called Mary the Mediatrix of Peace. In Honolulu the Catholic Cathedral is named Our Lady of Peace. A statue of Mary in the Cathedral's exterior courtyard Mary carries the ancient symbol of peace, the olive branch, in her right hand. (The dove another ancient symbol of peace is connected with her.) 3 There is reason to believe that the absence of the feminine in the Above is the cause for the Above’s disharmony This study therefore, explores both mythic and symbolic materials that may cast light on whether Mary, who in the Catholic Church holds the title Queen of Peace, can neutralize if not contain the destructiveness of modern weapons. Mary's part in containing war may also be viewed as part of the mythic Return of the Feminine to the Theosphere and path to advance Feminine Consciousness. STATE OF THE CHRISTIAN THEOSPHERE. According to Jung, the Above or Theosphere "knows" of its wrongs. In order to correct these flaws, Yahweh "must become man precisely because he has done something wrong." And where did God commit something wrong? Jung brings attention to Yahweh's ill treatment of Job and to the "crime" orchestrated by Yahweh when he rejected Cain's offering and thereby, incited sibling conflict. There also was the wrong of destroying humanity with the flood. But a greater wrong was committed early in Genesis: prevent humanity from eating fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, and thus condemned to remain with a primate's instinctual nature which, in turn, would have precluded humanity from becoming consciousness. Because Yahweh in Genesis is very much a God to fear, he acts in character when he punishes humanity, particularly the feminine for seeking consciousness that is, eating fruit from the Tree of Knowledge: "I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children; Your desire shall be for your husband; And he shall rule over you." Another insidious flaw in the Above is God's obsession with sin. This obsession incites a one- sidedness wrath which generates widespread destruction as evident in John's Revelation. God proclaims a coming apocalypse that would obliterate humanity. In short, the world would be destroyed because of God's caprice. Why does God seem to focus so much on the doings of humans? Does his life really revolve round whether or not humans commit "sin" or worship him? Yahweh's predilection for wrathful destruction reflects an unstable nature. The author of GOD OF WAR links the Jewish Yahweh and the Christian Father God with carrying out a constant battle against evil. In this context, God is a War God. If there is no questioning, whoever God opposes is accepted to be associated with evil and therefore worthy of being attacked. The Church see enemies in many places. Clearly the tribes who occupied the Promised Land were enemies and worthy of being destroyed. In short, it was "righteous" for the Jewish Tribes to destroy the occupying tribes. But such behavior underscores that the Jewish and Christian God is tribal, looking out only for his people. And so, the 'Enemy' has become a stock figure in religious warfare. With the enemy ever present, disharmony ever lurks Above. At times Yahweh requires that he be approached with fear. But obedience based on fear is suspect in the Below where humanity has increasingly experimented with love. Over time, love has challenged the message of fear. Was love what the Theosphere lacked? How then to bring love to the Above? For Jung, the answer was to be found in God's incarnation among humans. (It may be added that the incarnation reversed the alchemical saying, "all that is above also is below" to, "all that is below also is above.") With love on par with fear, the sanctioning of war increasingly is questioned. Given the influence that the Heavens have on Earth, it is not surprising that the latter enacts the former's one-sided masculine severity. Too much one-sided male consciousness emits too much apocalypse and too little loving kindness. Where breathes love and kindness? In human terms, they are found in the feminine, in Eve, in her daughters and in Mary, the Second Eve. They breathe in the underworld where Eve's daughters went to find reprieve from Yahweh's "curse." 4 At the same time, the feminine sent upward to the earth's surface notions of love. (Perhaps these expressions of love were what the Above saw down Below and enticed God to incarnate among humans: to seek love in order to temper his wrath.) Paul Tillich refers to "God-beyond-God" to describe a non-personal deity which stands in contrast to the personal manifestation of God. "Our" God is prone to interact with his creation at the personal level, but at the personal level his incompleteness and wrath are evident causing him to be perceived as a Tribal God. While Tillich affirms Zarathustra's claim that the (personal) "God is dead," humanity, nonetheless, holds on to a personal God. Humanity has not yet evolved to the point where it can interact with the God-above-God, that is, with an impersonal Cosmic God. For humans, a personal God curbs human impulsiveness (sinfulness) and patterns "correct" behavior. God guides a people toward right action. But what happens when the pattern no longer fits the level of consciousness? Then, either the personal God fades, or the personal God "evolves" and transmits his nature in a manner that fits the new era.
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